IBM and Nova Scotia Team to Invest in Future Economic Growth

New investments will create up to 500 highly-skilled local jobs,
establish local IBM centre of services excellence; facilitate higher-ed
analytics and research collaboration to build essential skills for
tomorrow's economy

HALIFAX, NS and MARKHAM, ON, Nov. 8, 2012 /CNW/ - The Government of Nova
Scotia and IBM (NYSE:IBM), in close partnership with Nova Scotia Business, Inc. and a consortium
of six higher education institutions, led by Nova Scotia Community
College, today announced new agreements to establish an IBM Global
Delivery Centre, create up to 500 new highly skilled jobs and nurture
"economy of tomorrow" analytics skills within Nova Scotia.

As a result of the agreement, IBM will create a new Canadian delivery
centre for application services to be located in Halifax, with services
also delivered from Sydney. It is the first IBM centre of its kind in
Canada. The new centre will become part of IBM's global network of
delivery centres that provide application development and support
services to manage and transform IT systems for local government
departments, businesses and universities.

In an associated ten-year deal, IBM and the Province have agreed that
IBM will provide SAP application management services for Nova Scotia's
Core Competency Centre (CCC) and Health Administrative Services Program
(HASP) programs. IBM will extend job offers to all seventy-five
government employees who are currently managing these services. These
employees will have an opportunity to grow and expand their highly
valued skills within Nova Scotia as members of one the world's largest,
most experienced global services teams.

In parallel, IBM is making a multi-million dollar investment and
collaborating with Nova Scotia Community College, Dalhousie University,
Acadia University, Cape Breton University, Saint Francis Xavier
University and St. Mary's University to create a province-wide centre
of excellence in analytics education, certification, training and
research. The collaboration will deliver post-secondary analytics
curriculum to produce workers with the analytics skills that are in
high demand, train graduates in skills to make them more employable,
and retrain valuable workers with aging skill-sets.

IBM's move to bring jobs and employees to Nova Scotia as part of the new
investments is intended to create up to 500 new jobs over the next
eight years.

"This partnership is good news for Nova Scotia's students, families, and
businesses, and it's exactly the kind of progress needed to help create
jobs and grow Nova Scotia's economy of the future," said Premier
Darrell Dexter. "IBM's decision to establish its only Canadian global
delivery centre in Nova Scotia will create hundreds of high-paying,
long-term jobs, and position Nova Scotia as a leader in innovation and
analytics. The partnership between IBM, the province, and our academic
institutions will attract more investment, more businesses, and more
jobs of the future to Nova Scotia."

With the exponential growth of big data across industries, analytics is rapidly emerging as a competitive
differentiator that generates key insights for organizations to sense,
respond and predict relevant market and business trends in real-time.
This insight will facilitate better decisions, more efficient
operations and improved business performance. The new higher education
collaboration will help equip Nova Scotia students with the high demand
analytics skills necessary to drive the economy of the future - from
Nova Scotia.

"These investments weave together our business insights,
industry-leading software portfolio, world-class technology research
and operations expertise with application development and analytics to
successfully extend our long-term collaboration with Nova Scotia and
its higher educational institutions," said John Lutz, president, IBM
Canada. "The projects showcase Nova Scotia's continued commitment to
create highly skilled job opportunities for citizens as we team to
efficiently stimulate growth and prepare for the future."

Employers today are looking for a broad set of workers with the right
mix of high-value skills to support transformative projects that are
now underway -- modernizing health care systems, making aging buildings
more energy efficient, and improving the delivery and effectiveness of
public service. Students studying analytics, computer science, supply
chain, and engineering will all be candidates for employment by
programs in the new Canadian delivery centre.

"Today's students need continuous preparation for a digital world that
blends both business and technology skills," said Don Bureaux,
President, Nova Scotia Community College. "Our collaboration with IBM
will spark the growth of specific skills businesses will need to grow
and compete in a global marketplace. With this step, we will be
providing Nova Scotia students with a home-grown opportunity to build
these in-demand skills for meaningful economic impact."

IBM's global delivery centre expertise spans over three dozen countries,
serving thousands of clients worldwide. Establishment of the centre
will help to unify application support and increase efficiencies for
clients in Atlantic Canada, across the country, and globally. IBM has
a set of integrated tools, processes and disciplines that will be
transplanted to the new Canadian centre to deliver superior
applications for clients.